Mexican Wolves: Coming to Flagstaff, Phoenix, Tucson, Gilbert....

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed revision to the nonessential experimental population of the Mexican wolf. Click here to read it. Comments will be accepted for 60 days. Click HERE to comment.

If you aren't up to reading all 467 pages, the first 18 pages will enlighten you.

The Service has also set up two meetings on the topic:

Aug 11- Pinetop, AZ - HonDah Convention Center

Aug 13 - Truth or Consequences, N.M.- Civic Center, 400 W. Fourth St.

Information meetings 2-4 pm, followed by hearings from 6-9 pm.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service wants to do the following:

1. Expand the release of Mexican Wolves in a wide swath of Arizona and New Mexico, from I-40 (Flagstaff) to I-10 (all the way to Tucson) and from our border with California and New Mexico's border with Texas. It will include a portion of Texas. See the map below. Release area is pale blue.

2. The number of wolves to be released will be greatly increased. (Some have said 300 instead of 100).

3. Since this newly expanded release area includes towns, cities, residential areas, parks, etc., the "nuisance" factor that involves wolf/human, pet, and livestock interactions will supposedly be mitigated due to a more relaxed attitude toward "taking" a wolf. To a homeowner, this means that if a wolf is ripping out your dog's intestines and genitals in front of your 6-year old daughter on your property, you are allowed to kill the wolf. Your actions will, however, be subject to investigation. According to the previous rule, a Mexican wolf could enter your property and bloody up your driveway with your golden retriever, but you could legally do nothing to stop it, except to "shoo" it away. (See Man Demonstrates how Easy it is to Stop a Wolf: Yellowstone Park.) After all, those wolves cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars per wolf.

The reason that the USFWS has decided to handle the Mexican wolf release this way is because of the dismal failure experienced by the 1998 release of Mexican wolves into the BRWRA (Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area). That area included eastern Arizona and western New Mexico.

The number of wolves hasn't increased very much.

The failure was due to massive resistance from the people who were forced to live with Mexican wolves. I can' t imagine why these folks don't like wolves.

Some of these rural citizens in Arizona and New Mexico have small cattle ranches, some don't. These American citizens don't seem to like wolves hanging around their yards, leaving feces where their children play. They don't like wolves following their children to bus stops. They don't like seeing their children waking up morning after morning to be greeted by the grisly remains of slaughtered pets and calves. One little girl awoke to discover that the only thing left of her pet pony was its bloody hide.

They don't like finding their pregnant cows dead with their fetuses torn from them. They don't like seeing dead elk with only their hindquarters eaten. These families don't like seeing their livestock slaughtered, and they don't like having to jump through hoops to "prove" to the USFWS that it was a wolf that did it.

They don't like a government that tells them that they can't legally protect their property and livelihood.

They don't like a government that lies to them about the true nature of wolves.

All of the above is factual and well documented.

"Cattlemen stood by somewhat bewildered that they were cast as villains for trying to protect their cattle from the wolves introducted into Yellowstone Park and central Idaho last week. Soon the killing will start, a little at first, but growing with time. Wildlife will diminish, and hunting with it. Livestock will perish, and ranches will go under. And in 20 or 30 years, the wolf will reign supreme. We'll have a major problem on our hands, and our children will wonder how we could have been so stupid." Jake Cummins, Executive Vice President, Montana Farm Bureau Federation, January 1995.Yellowstone is Dead

For More Information:

The Real Wolf by Ted B. Lyon and Will N. Graves. This is by far the best book available on wolves. The research is vast and irrefutable.